Updated : Every Fourth Indian Is Connected ! India World's Second-largest Wireless Market !

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Every fourth Indian is connected

1 Jul, 2008, 1801 hrs IST

BANGALORE: Every one in four Indians has a phone now, thanks to the scorching pace at which the burgeoning telecom services sector grew in the last fiscal, says an annual survey.

With the total wireless subscriber base crossing 261 million as on March 31, wireless connectivity forms 22 per cent of the total tele-density at 25 per cent across the country, the survey adds.

The annual survey by Voice and Data of CyberMedia group revealed that the Indian telecom subscriber base zoomed by 66 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the fiscal under review over the previous year.

"A booming economy, easing of entry barriers and lowering of tariffs fuelled the growth in FY 2008, with 104 million new subscribers getting connected and making India the second fastest growing telecom market in the world," CyberMedia publisher Prasanto K. Roy said Tuesday, citing the survey findings.

The trigger for rapid telecom service growth was the revolutionary telecom policies of the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments, resulting in affordable connectivity to a common man.

"With India's telecom tariffs still the lowest in the world, there's enormous and sustained growth beyond the metros. So telcos see huge opportunity in the three-fourths of Indians still untouched by the mobile phone revolution," Roy noted.

Leading the growth was the proliferating cellular service in urban and rural areas, accounting for 59 per cent of the total revenue, followed by fixed line and international long distance (ILD).

"A whopping 104 million more subscribers were connected during the fiscal under review, with about 50 per cent of them originating from tertiary and rural areas," the survey said.

Thriving in the growing market, the Indian telecom services industry generated Rs.1,306 billion ($31 billion) in 2007-08, registering 21.3 per cent growth.

Mobile, fixed line, national long distance (NLD), ILD, broadband, VSAT (very small aperture terminal) and radio-trunking constitute the telecom services industry.

Growing at 36.4 per cent YoY, revenue from mobile service increased to Rs. 766 billion from Rs. 562 billion in the previous fiscal (FY 2007).

Majority of new mobile subscribers is from towns and villages with less than 200,000 population. The mobile network covers about 50 per cent of the 600,000 towns and villages across the country.

"The mobile services are available from over a million outlets, which exceed that of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) or postal outlets. Expansion into rural areas, lowering entry price of handsets through freebies and customer retention efforts have helped operators to ramp up their subscriber-base and revenues," Roy pointed out.

In contrast, revenue from fixed line declined by 11.6 per cent to Rs.267 billion from Rs.302 billion in the previous fiscal. Revenue growth from ILD service remained flat at Rs.115 billion. Both the services respectively accounted for 20.4 per cent and 8.8 per cent of the industry revenue.

Revenue from NLD service, however, grew by 35.4 per cent to Rs.97 billion from Rs.72 billion, accounting for 7.5 per cent of the total revenue.

Unlike in previous years, broadband service witnessed a phenomenal growth of 163 per cent YoY to generate Rs.54 billion as against Rs.20 billion in the previous fiscal. The subscriber base grew to 3.9 million in the last fiscal from 2.5 million in the previous year.

The telecos also have to leverage SMS, data, and other value-added services to remain profitable in the face of the low and falling ARPU (average revenue per user). The top five service providers vie for a larger share of the growing telecom pie. State-run BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) leads the pack with Rs.353 billion despite 12 per cent decline from the previous fiscal," Roy pointed out.

BSNL is followed by Bharti Airtel, with Rs.264 billion, Reliance Communications Rs.186 billion and Vodafone Rs.155 billion, respectively.

The top five operators based on cellular subscriber base are Bharti (62 million), Reliance (46 million), Vodafone (44 million), BSNL (41 million) and Idea cellular (24 million).

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Telecom services revenue up 21% to Rs 1.30 lakh cr

1 Jul, 2008, 1840 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: With one out of four Indians owning a phone, revenue of the country's telecom services industry has swelled to Rs 1,30,561 crore in 2007-08, up 21 per cent over the the previous fiscal.

India added 100 million new subscribers in this period. The revenue of telecom services, including that of cellular, fixed line, national long distance, international long distance, broadband, radio trunking and VSAT services, has risen to Rs 1,30,561 crore, registering a growth of 21.3 per cent, a survey by Voice&Data revealed.

Among the services, cellular segment contributed a major chunk of around 59 per cent to the total revenue. The segment's topline rose to Rs 76,608 crore in 2007-08, compared to Rs 56,183 crore last fiscal, a growth of about 36 per cent. BSNL topped the survey list in terms of revenue with Rs 35,296 crore total income. However, it registered a negative growth of 12 per cent. Its revenue for last fiscal was Rs 40,135 crore.

Bharti with Rs 26,436 crore topline clinched the second slot while Reliance communications was placed at the third position reporting total income of Rs 18,638 crore, the survey read.

Fixed line business was the second biggest revenue earner for the industry, contributing more than 20 per cent. However, its total income dipped 11.6 per cent in this financial year to Rs 26,692 crore, compared to Rs 30,190 in 2006-07, it said.

Broadband business showed a huge growth of 162.7 per cent in terms of revenue. It reached to Rs 5,359 crore in 2007-08, compared to Rs 2,040 crore in the previous fiscal.

The growth in the number of broadband subscribers, however, was not appealing as the country added only 1.4 million new users in this period. The total subscriber base was up 56 per cent to 3.9 million, the survey added.

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India world's second-largest wireless market: Study

8 Aug, 2008, 0932 hrs IST, ET

BANGALORE: Mobile telephony has grown rapidly in India, especially during the last three years, with India becoming the second-largest wireless market in the world, says a World Bank study.

The number of wireless subscribers in the country has reached 250 million, making India the second-largest wireless market in the world, says the study, The Role of Mobile Phones in Sustainable Rural Poverty Reduction.

Authored by Asheeta Bhavnani, Rowena Won-Wai Chiu, Subramaniam Janakiram and Peter Silarszky, the study says India is now second only to China, with tele-density already surpassing the 25 percent mark.

Currently, China is adding about 6-7 million new subscribers per month, India about 8-9 million and the US about 2-3 million, it notes.

"The private sector is also active in India and there are a number of telecommunication companies providing mobile telephone services who have to compete for market share and meet consumer expectations," according to the study released recently.

It argues that mobile telephony has a positive impact on economic welfare by generating GDP; job generation (both in the mobile industry and the wider economy); productivity increases; and taxation revenue with mobile operators usually being a sizeable contributor.

Telecom, IT services and software researcher firm Ovum, based in North America, had already pointed out the economic benefit of mobile services in India, in another study in January 2006.

Ovum had also reported that the mobile telephony sector contributed Rs.145 billion ($3.6 billion) per year in import duties, licence fees, spectrum fees, and taxation revenues in India.

The World Bank study said mobile phones also cause an impact at the micro level in reducing poverty. "For example, reducing market inefficiencies in Bangladesh or information asymmetries in India."

Other studies have shown that fishermen in Kerala use mobile phones to arbitrage over price information from potential buyers and coordinate sales, helping them to increase incomes and reduce wastage.

Since the use of mobile phones in 1997 there, the technology has had an impact in ensuring "price stability for the consumer and a nearly perfect spatial arbitrage replaced a collection of autarkic fishing markets", notes the study.

A 2001 survey of 300 sardine fishing units found that phones were bought by the largest boats first as they could get the largest possible arbitrage gains and could afford the $100 phones.

This earlier study concluded that the use of mobile phones increased consumer surplus (by an average of six percent); increased the fishermen's profits (by an average of eight percent); reduced price dispersion (by four percent) and reduced waste (which was averaging 5-8 percent of daily catch, before the use of mobile phones).

It said that, like the fishermen finding out where to land their catch, other Indian rural communities could possibly find innovative ways to apply technology not previously available to them.

Yet, it noted, "none of this would be possible without a new pricing model that has re-valued SMS from a mere 10 percent side player in revenue streams to a main staple".

Similarly, it said that if multimedia functions could also be price-dropped from an elitist, overpriced niche product for tech geeks to a commoditized mass market necessity, these functions could drive rural economic and social transformation.

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Every second Indian will go mobile by 2012

30 Aug, 2008, 0548 hrs IST, ET

NEW DELHI: With India now adding 8-10 million mobile subscribers every month, up to half the nation’s population-or one in every two citizens-will own a mobile phone in India by the middle of 2012.

According to Business Monitor International, a renowned London-based research firm, 612 million mobile subscribers by 2012 will help India clock a mobile teledensity of roughly 51% by 2012. This scorching pace of growth is unlikely to falter unless the sector faces unforeseen policy disasters or if India’s operators fail to roll out their networks.

International Telecom Union’s (ITU) projections are in the same range.India is already the world’s second largest mobile market, behind China’s 500 plus million mobile subscriber base.

Increasing incomes, changing lifestyles and lower cost of technology are allowing more and more Indians to ride the telecom wave. The new numbers overtake earlier estimates, including from UBS, Citigroup and Credit Suisse, predicting a mobile population of 400-450 million by March 2010. Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have been more even conservative, betting on a base of just 400 million by 2010.

However, India will reach this milestone in 2009 itself. India’s mobile revolution has been a huge social leveler, with the growing number of users tying a diverse nation in a manner rarely seen before.

Its youth are expected to contribute significantly to these surging numbers. Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, which tied up with Tata Teleservices to launch branded services in India recently said, “An exciting market, with over 215 million Indians aged 14-25 years. Over the next three years we expect to be adding 50 million new youth subscribers.’’

While companies like Virgin are currently focused on the urban market, it is clear that the next set of growth will come from B and C category cities as well as rural India. Mobile penetration of this magnitude has the ability to revolutionalize long distance learning and health care quickly reaching some of the most far flung and difficult terrains.

Where mobile content is concerned most analysts agree that, largely on the back of India’s popular film industry, music services will grow very quickly, even if other content related revenue lags behind.

Given that a reasonable part of the population by 2010 will be children below 14 and senior citizens, it seems mobile access among the youth and working classes will be more in the range of 70-80%. In policy terms, government needs to quickly turn its focus on redirecting funds for rural mobile access, manage spectrum efficiently and invite multi-billion dollar investments at a pan-India level to fuel this already scorching telecom growth.

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India will have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012: Raja

24 Sep, 2008, 2034 hrs IST, IANS

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday expressed concern over the divide between the urban and rural areas in terms of telecom connectivity, and said the country would have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012.

"We plan to have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012 at a penetration rate of 25 per cent and will utilise the USO (universal service obligation) fund for the achievement of this goal," Communications and IT Minister A Raja said here.

So far, around 88 mn phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 per cent, he added.

He said there was a huge potential for foreign investment in telecom equipment manufacturing, especially in the wake of the government's target of achieving 600 mn subscribers.

"Following the government's measures to promote broadband in the country, the broadband subscribers grew from a meagre 0.18 mn in March 2005 to more than four mn, up to August 2008," Raja said.

It is also envisaged that internet and broadband subscribers will increase to 40 mn and 20 mn respectively by 2010, he added.

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60% of mobile users in rural India by '12: E&Y

Economic Times l 2 Dec l New Delhi

Rural India too prefers mobile phones over landlines. Of the next 250 million Indian wireless users, approximately 100 million (40%) are likely to be from rural areas, and by 2012, rural users will account for over 60% of the total telecom subscriber base, according to a report jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.

As per Trai figures, subscriber additions in rural areas exceeded additions in the metros. In the first nine months of 2008, the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3 million.

Mobile phones in rural India also grew by close to 13.72% to reach 70.83 million in the quarter-ending June 2008.

This is expected to continue till 2012, according to the CII and Ernst and Young analysis. “The majority of new wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C,” said Ernst & Young telecom analyst, Prashant Singhal.

While the overall teledensity in India is over 30%, in rural areas the figure languishes in single digits. CII predicts the number of subscriber addition in rural areas to exceed the additions in metros by 2012 with about 120 million new users expected to adopt wireless telephony in rural areas compared to about 62 million in the metros.

With over 300 million mobile subscribers, India is the second largest market, after China, in terms of subscribers. By 2012, the total telecom subscriber base is expected to shoot up to include about 700 million subscribers, of which about 650 million will be wireless users.

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This is real good news kamal..!! looks like India Shining all the way!!